‘A scream I’ll never forget.’ How a Raleigh officer ID’d the Hedingham killer

A Raleigh police lieutenant testified Tuesday that Austin Thompson’s mother arrived home in the middle of a swirling manhunt for her own child and began banging on the door of their garage yelling, “It’s Mom! Open the door!”

In the early hours of the Hedingham mass shooting, police on the scene had no clue who had shot and killed five people and wounded a sixth. They only knew that officers had pinned down a suspect in a nearby barn, and that an officer had taken a gunshot wound to the leg.

Then a car pulled up on Sahalee Way where officers found the first victims. A woman got out and told Lt. J.E. Rigsbee that she lived “right there,” and she opened the garage and cried out her two sons’ names.

Rigsbee shrugged it off at first, thinking the kids were inside taking shelter, and then, “There was a scream I’ll never forget,” he said.

He and two other officers found James Thompson dead on the bathroom floor. Prosecutors would later describe the rifle wounds to the back of his head and the 49 stab wounds around his neck.

“I’d never seen so much blood,” said Rigsbee, a veteran of homicide cases with his voice breaking.

The Raleigh lieutenant was the final witness Tuesday in the sentencing hearing that will determine whether Austin Thompson spends the rest of his life in prison. The hearing is expected to last through the end of next week.

Just 15 at the time of the shooting, and critically wounded in an apparent suicide attempt, Thompson has already pleaded guilty to murdering five and wounding two more in the mass shooting.

As he moved through the house that night and saw guns and ammunition strewn through the rooms, Rigsbee said he “immediately knew” who police were pursuing: a sophomore at Knightdale High School.

“I thought this is the house,” he said. “This is the shooter’s house.”

But along with the weapons, Rigsbee testified he also found a note and read it.

Then he went to speak with Austin’s mother, Elise Thompson, who was “hysterical” outside in the driveway.

“She kept saying that we had to find whoever did this because her son was missing and he was probably scared,” Rigsbee said.

Having seen the note, he told her, “I think your son’s involved in this.”

Little information has emerged until now about the Thompson brothers’ family.

Shortly after the 2022 shooting, parents Alan and Elise Thompson released a short statement: “Our son Austin inflicted immeasurable pain on the Raleigh community, and we are overcome with grief for the innocent lives lost.”

But the note and its contents remain under seal.

Testimony continues Wednesday.

This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 6:23 PM.

Josh Shaffer

The News & Observer

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Josh Shaffer is a general assignment reporter on the watch for “talkers,” which are stories you might discuss around a water cooler. He has worked for The News & Observer since 2004 and writes a column about unusual people and places.